First Fall: The Canoe Thief

by Zaide Bishop

  “I don’t know how she does this,” Whiskey muttered, prodding and stuffing flesh against flesh. Fox was soft again now and deeply uncomfortable. Partially because of what Whiskey was doing and partially because he wanted him to go back to what he’d been doing a moment ago.

  “Just stop. Let me go,” Fox said.

  “Shut up.”

  “Ouch!”

  He felt something like a pop and the sensation of being “inside.” The Varekai’s shell was tight and very hot. The only lubrication between them was saliva and it was little enough.

  A fine sweat had broken out over the Varekai’s skin and he was half doubled over, as if in pain.

  “There,” he said, determined. “It’s in.”

  “Brilliant,” Fox spat. “Now you can wait ten minutes and pull it back out again, and I can go home.”

  “India and Tare moved,” Whiskey said.

  Fox gritted his teeth. Of course they did. Fox knew how sex worked, even though Whiskey seemed to have no idea, and it definitely wasn’t supposed to work like this.

  “Do you have any lard? Fat? Some kind of animal grease?” he asked.

  “What for?”

  “When Elikai have sex, we use lard. If we didn’t, we’d hurt each other. It will make everything go in and out smoothly.”

  Whiskey grimaced, then rose to his feet and went to his bag, coming back with a roasted duck breast wrapped in banana leaves. As the meat had cooled, the fat had gathered at the bottom. Whiskey scraped it off with his fingers and applied it between his thighs, rubbing it in somewhere Fox couldn’t see.

  The Varekai straddled him again and this time, even though he was now completely flaccid, he slid in easily. It was only the tip of him inside the shell; though now greasy and warm, it was not so uncomfortable. He let out a slow sigh and Whiskey mirrored him.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” Whiskey said.

  Fox glared up at him. From this angle, Whiskey’s red hair haloed around him. He could see every detail of the stripes of ink and clay on his abdomen and chest. “When my brothers hear about this, they are going to come after you.”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  Whiskey began to roll his hips, and Fox closed his eyes. Not being able to see the Varekai seemed to make the scent of him stronger, so it rolled over Fox along with the savory odor of cooked duck.

  Whiskey rested his hands on his chest and when Fox dared to glance up, the Varekai’s eyes were closed, his face locked in an expression of grim determination. His chest was bare now, and with every hip thrust, his small, upthrust breasts wobbled. The soft, warm insides of the shell caressed Fox’s length. Not so uncomfortable now. Not the same as when Whiskey had him in his mouth, but still...good.

  Fox’s cock began to stiffen. He tried to resist, but as he swelled, the walls of Whiskey’s shell tightened around him and every rocking movement drew a new, deeper wave of sensation. That, in turn, made him harder still.

  Whiskey gave a little whine of distress. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s not voluntary,” Fox snapped back.

  He hissed. “It’s too big.”

  “Then stop!”

  Whiskey didn’t stop, and Fox could feel himself expanding inside the Varekai, pushing deeper into a resisting channel. His eyes kept finding their way back to the Varekai’s chest, the bobbing pink nipples, lined with ink, jerking and trembling. The Varekai scent, all over him now, washing down across him as stress made Whiskey sweat more.

  Fox had never been so hard in his life.

  “Stop,” he begged. “Whiskey, stop.”

  “No. If I can take it, you can.”

  Against his will, Fox’s hips jerked, pushing harder, and the Varekai whimpered in discomfort. Fox couldn’t stop himself. He was so hard it ached. He wanted more. Now. He was getting close to his peak and he guessed, in some abstract way, that was what the Varekai needed.

  He was doing most of the work now, his hips thrusting up in deep pulses of need. Whiskey’s little cries of pain, his breasts, his smell, all of it overwhelmed him, and Fox came suddenly, buried as deep as he could go inside the Varekai. His seed spread, and as Whiskey continued to move, it was with less friction.

  “It’s done,” Fox panted, shoulders relaxing back against the sand.

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  Whiskey was not stopping, and when Fox grew still, instead he simply continued as he had been before Fox began to thrust; rocking and sliding, in and out, back and forth.

  Fox closed his eyes, heart pounding, trying to catch his breath. He had softened a little, but not all the way. He could still feel the warm caress of the Varekai’s insides.

  If Whiskey didn’t give up too soon, he might even rally. It was more than his brothers could do for him. Normally once he peaked he couldn’t get away from them fast enough.

  Though the sensation was starting to change. His cock was gliding in and out smoothly now. Whiskey pulled himself up higher only to sink back down deeper, and now something inside the Varekai was gripping Fox, tugging him like a mouth.

  “Mm,” Whiskey murmured.

  “What?”

  He hissed. “Shut up.”

  The Varekai’s head was back, his neck and chest flushed with color. His lips were parted. He raised one hand and clutched his own breast.

  Aroused, Fox realized suddenly. The Varekai was becoming aroused. The sudden realization that Whiskey was using him to get off was worse than when he was just using Fox to breed.

  “I’m not your plaything,” he snapped, but even has he said it, he stiffened to his full girth again, his hips pushing up into the Varekai. “You already got what you wanted.”

  “I will gag you if I have to.” Whiskey was breathless, his words coming out a gruff whisper.

  Whiskey moved both his hands to his own breasts, clutching the soft tissue and squeezing the erect nipples. His every breath was a sound, throaty and desperate, and Fox could feel the wet heat between them spreading.

  He started to groan too, his own wordless pleas mingling with the Varekai’s. Whiskey’s whole body seemed to contract at once, gripping Fox’s member like a fist.

  Whiskey’s cries were more like a scream and he arched. Inside, the muscles clenched over and over, milking Fox, driving him into a second peak. He came again, thrusting hard, drawing out the Varekai’s own climax into long, shattering seconds.

  Whiskey doubled over, breathing hard. They were still locked at the hip, and Fox could feel their combined fluids working their way down across his testicles, between his legs. Inside, the shell was still pulsing, sucking, but Fox was well and truly spent.

  “Get off me,” he snapped.

  Whiskey rose, legs shaky, and pulled on some of his clothes. Then, with legs that seemed to threaten to buckle with every step, he tied Fox up as he had been before, sitting against the tree with his feet free.

  “Stop sulking,” Whiskey said, glancing at him. “It’s done.”

  “Not by half.”

  Whiskey snorted and stretched out. “Have it your way. I’m going to sleep for a few hours. When it’s light, we’ll try again.”

  “Again?”

  “Well, I have to be sure. Better safe than sorry. I doubt you’ll be as easy to catch a second time around.”

  Chapter Eight

  Eden—Before the World was Born

  Fox was on his knees in the dirt, digging out handfuls of potatoes. He rubbed them in his hands, clearing away as much of the red soil as possible, before placing them in a reed basket. Overhead, the lights were in the hottest part of their cycle, blindingly white to look at and warming Eden like it was a giant oven. The teachers said it needed to be this hot and bright for the plants to grow. In a few hours, the overhead
sprinklers would come on and drench the ground and anyone still out working. The showers lasted fifteen minutes, every day, even in the colder months where the lights did not get so warm.

  The potato patch was close to the wall, and through the glass Fox could see the corridor leading through to the laboratories and clinics. He didn’t really like being near the wall. Not because of its proximity to the clinics, which were not his favorite place to be by any stretch of the imagination, but because it reminded him how finite the world was.

  In the videos of the world before, there was no ceiling, just a blue-and-white haze that went up and up forever. Sometimes it was a black haze, with pinprick stars and a moon. The streets the Elikai walked down on the TV were longer than Eden was. The fields the cows and sheep roamed in looked endless, as if he could start running and just run and run all day without ever finding a wall. Sprinting as fast as he could, it took Fox no more than ten minutes to sprint from one side of Eden to the other, twice as long if he wanted to follow the walls and run in a big circle. The world was big enough, he supposed, but sometimes he wondered what it would be like if everyone else went to the clinic at once and it was just him and the dogs and cows and chickens for a day. He wondered what it would be like to wander around and see no one at all.

  The flicker of movement at the end of the corridor caught Fox’s attention. A teacher was passing through, though there was something strange about him. The teachers were twice as tall as any Elikai, with wrinkled skin and hair in odd places, as different to Elikai as cows were to dogs. This teacher was even more different than usual. His hair was long and his chest had large lumps on it under the white coat. Fox didn’t recognize him at all, though new teachers often came and went. They did not spend much time with the Elikai, often observing, but rarely interacting.

  Fox almost went back to his work, but then a shimmer of red-orange hair caught his attention. Trailing along behind the teacher, looking chagrined, was an Elikai Fox had never seen before.

  He was the same height as Fox, with masses of red curls, freckles and bright green eyes. For a moment, Fox couldn’t think of any response at all. A new Elikai? Where had he come from? Where were they taking him? How could there possibly be more Elikai? The redhead looked equally stunned, staring into Eden through the Perspex as if he’d never seen the world before. Had the teachers been keeping him in the clinic all his life? They must have. Where else could he have been?

  The teacher with the lumps on his chest passed by quickly, not noticing the stranger Elikai had stopped and was staring at Fox. Silently, he got to his feet and shuffled over. They studied one another with mirrored expressions of awe. Fox put his hand on the Perspex, leaving dirty smears. The stranger copied him, so their palms were pressed together.

  “Who are you?” the stranger mouthed.

  “Fox,” he said.

  He shook his head. He didn’t understand.

  Fox started to write on the Perspex with his dirty fingers. F. O.

  Before he could draw the X, the teacher hurried back and grabbed the stranger’s arm, dragging him away bodily and through the door at the end of the corridor. Fox pressed his cheek to the glass, trying to see where they had gone, but there was only the closed door.

  He brushed off his hands on his shorts and hurried back through the vegetable gardens toward the houses. Zebra and Love were sitting on a porch, playing knucklebones.

  “I saw a stranger.” Fox flopped down beside them.

  “A strange teacher?” Zebra asked.

  “No, a strange Elikai. He had red hair and freckles and he looked just like us.”

  Love crinkled his nose. “There are no other Elikai.”

  Fox glared. “I just said I saw one, didn’t I?”

  Zebra thought about it a moment, then scrambled to his feet. “I believe you. Let’s go ask Teacher Steve.”

  Teacher Steve was the teacher most often in the village. He gave lessons, and today he was on the shooting range, directing Nab and Tare on the use of a bow.

  “Teacher Steve.” Zebra bounced over to him, having to crane his head back to meet the teacher’s gaze.

  “Zebra,” Teacher Steve said. “What is it?”

  “Fox saw another Elikai. In the corridor. Are we getting a new brother?”

  Teacher Steve glanced toward the glass wall, even though it was out of sight behind the banana trees. “No.”

  “Can we at least meet him?” Fox said. “What’s his name?”

  “It wasn’t an Elikai,” Teacher Steve said. His tone was dismissive.

  “It was!” Fox insisted crossly. “I saw him. I didn’t make it up.”

  “I want to see him.” Tare put down his bow and came to join them. “Can I see him?”

  “Was he a baby?” Nab asked.

  “No, he was just like us,” Fox insisted. “The teacher took him into the clinic.”

  Teacher Steve sighed. “It wasn’t an Elikai. It was a Varekai.”

  “What’s a Varekai?” Zebra asked.

  “Behind that wall is another Eden, just like this one,” Teacher Steve said. There was a long moment of silence, as none of the Elikai could think of any sensible response to this.

  Finally, Love said, “Another Eden? But why?”

  “To keep you separate. The Elikai and the Varekai have to be segregated.”

  “Why?” Tare pressed. “Can’t we go see them? I want to see their Eden. Do they have cows? Can they talk? I think we should be allowed to play with them.”

  Teacher Steve made a sound of annoyance. “You can’t.”

  “But why?” Zebra asked.

  “Because they’re dangerous, that’s why. The Varekai and the Elikai are too different to be together. If you met each other, you’d—” he seemed to fumble for the right word, “—die.”

  “Die!?” Love stepped quickly behind Tare.

  Teacher Steve nodded. “We keep you separate for your own safety. Be grateful.”

  Fox stared at him a moment, then plastered on a smile. “We are. Come on, guys.”

  He trotted away quickly, the other four Elikai trailing along behind him.

  “Tell us about the Varekai,” Tare insisted. They circled behind the houses and sat down out of sight.

  Fox told the story again, not leaving out a single detail, and his brothers listened in rapt fascination.

  Zebra looked slyly at the others. “The Varekai know about us now. They know we’re here. They know our Eden is here and I bet they want it as their own.”

  “Why?” Love demanded, alarmed. “They have their own Eden.”

  “They’re dangerous, remember?” Zebra said. “I bet they’re greedy. I bet they’re already planning to break in here and steal all our things, then eat us!”

  “The Varekai didn’t look dangerous,” Fox scoffed.

  “But you heard Teacher Steve,” Tare said. “For our own safety. They must be dangerous.”

  “And,” Zebra said, “smart. Smart enough to crawl through the air ducts, from their Eden to ours. They’re going to come tonight, through the walls. They’ll pop out when it’s dark and swarm the whole village!”

  Love squeaked. “Stop it!”

  Fox rolled his eyes. “Stop scaring him, Zebra.” But his insides felt tight and squirmy.

  “You better sleep with a knife under your mat,” Zebra told Love. “Just in case.”

  Fox got to his feet. “Don’t be stupid, of course we’re safe in here.”

  He walked away, frustrated and sulky. He wanted to see the Varekai. There had to be a way to get in to their Eden. There had to be a way to get into the clinics while they were there. But Eden was well sealed and protected. There was no way to leave the dome without the teachers, and when they visited the clinics, they were always watched and usually locked in. The Varekai mus
t have been trying to slip away. That was how he had got into the corridor and seen Fox. He’d been doing exactly what Fox wished he could do right now.

  He went back to his potatoes, hoping the Varekai would make it back to the corridor, but he never arrived. The afternoon shower came and went and the lights began to dim.

  Fox was on his way to the evening meal when he heard the angry voice of a teacher and an Elikai crying. He followed the sounds and found Love sitting against the wall in tears and Teacher Bill standing over him.

  “They’re going to k-kill u-us!” Love wailed. A nearby air vent was jammed full of mud and straw, as if someone had been trying to turn it into a mud brick wall.

  Angry and exasperated, Teacher Bill put his hands on his hips. “Who?”

  Fox quickly put himself between the teacher and his brother. He never really trusted them. They were too big, too unpredictable. “The Varekai. Zebra told him scary stories and...”

  Teacher Bill looked so stunned, Fox fell silent.

  “Who told you about the Varekai?”

  “Teacher Steve.”

  Teacher Bill threw his hands up. “Who else.”

  “I saw one, in the corridor. We asked about it. Teacher Steve told us about their Eden.”

  “And now they know we’re here they’re going to sneak through the vents and eat us!” Love wailed.

  Teacher Bill gritted his teeth. “That’s enough, Love. I don’t want to hear another word about the Varekai. They can’t get through the vents. If I find anyone else stuffing things into the vents, every single brother in Eden is going to be flogged.”

  Love hiccupped and fell into a terrified silence. Fox set his jaw and stood his ground, hoping Love could run if the teacher went after them. But he didn’t, he just shook his head, annoyed, and stalked away muttering to himself.

  “I don’t believe him,” Love whispered.

  “Yeah, well.” Fox pulled him to his feet. “You better believe him about the flogging part. Help me clean this out.”

  “What if the Varekai do break through?” Love started to scratch the mud and straw out of the vent with a stick.